College strike continues as faculty members reject latest contract offer
Premier plans to meet with both sides of labour dispute to get students back to class
Striking Ontario college faculty members have rejected the latest contract offer from their employer.
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Eighty-six per cent of members who voted rejected the Nov. 6 offer, according to a media release from the Ontario Public Service Employees Union bargaining team for the faculty.
Bargaining chair JP Hornick said the decision to reject the deal shouldn't come as a surprise.
"It was full of concessions and failed to address our concerns around fairness for faculty or education quality," he said, adding the union is calling the college employers back to the bargaining table.
More than half a million students have missed a month of classes since the strike involving 12,000 staff members from 24 colleges across the province began.
As news of the rejected deal broke, Premier Kathleen Wynne released a statement saying the strike has gone on for too long.
"It's not fair," she wrote.
Wynne plans to meet with representatives from both sides of the labour dispute Thursday in hopes of ending the strike and getting "students back to class where they belong."